Amazing as it may seem now, there was a time when Mike Marrow was Alabama’s next option at running back behind Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson.

But by the time Ingram left the Crimson Tide early for the 2011 NFL draft, and Richardson followed last winter, Marrow was long gone. He had left even sooner than they, influenced by family matters in 2010, to return closer to his Ohio home.

Four years after last carrying the football as a high-school senior, Marrow has resurfaced at Nebraska as a blocking and short-yardage specialist for the Cornhuskers.

It was another homecoming for Marrow, who lived in Gahanna and New Albany for about nine years and played at New Albany in 2006 and ’07 before moving to Toledo in 2008. As a senior at Toledo Central Catholic, he was the second-ranked fullback in the country by ESPN. He redshirted at Alabama in 2009 before abruptly leaving early the next season.

“When he came out of high school, he was a very high recruit for them,” said Marrow’s father, Vince, a former NFL player and a player and coach in NFL Europe. “He was going to have a big part in that program.

“What happened was my mother, my grandmother and his grandfather all died within less than a year. My mother died right before he left to go to Alabama. Two months after that, my grandmother died. Then his grandfather died three months after the national championship game.”

Mike went through camp with Alabama in 2010 but — in a depression, his father said — left in early September. He hoped to transfer to Michigan, but the enrollment deadline had passed. Not wanting to miss the semester, he ended up at Eastern Michigan.

But by spring 2011, he was at Nebraska. So was Vince, hired as a graduate assistant by Huskers coach Bo Pelini, his former teammate at Youngstown Cardinal Mooney.

“Mike has a learning disability, and, when he went to Alabama, they had (academic) support, so he did well in school,” Vince said. “At Eastern, there wasn’t the support Mike needed. So we looked and said, ‘OK, let’s get him in a school that has all the attributes: football and academics and academic support. We remembered, coming out of high school, that Nebraska had good academic support. … and I wanted him to play for Bo.”

Pelini is as hard-nosed a coach as Marrow is a runner, and after having to sit out another year in 2011 — the NCAA did not grant him a hardship waiver — Marrow finally is getting the opportunity to prove it. Entering the game last night, he had 10 carries for 31 yards but had been a blocking cog in an offense averaging 305.8 yards rushing per game, best in the Big Ten and fifth nationally.

“Once I got back out there, it felt good,” he said. “You’re playing at a different level than high school. I hadn’t played in a while, and the game’s a lot quicker. The first game, I was a little nervous, but I’m fine now.”

At 6 feet 2 and 250 pounds, Marrow is the kind of back Pelini said Nebraska lacked when it entered the Big Ten last year after playing in the more spread-out Big 12. That’s one reason Marrow was added.

“He’s a big, pounding, physical tailback that you need to have in certain situations in this league,” offensive coordinator Tim Beck told the Omaha World-Herald.